The best way to help a child's speech and language development is through play. Here are 10 simple activities that you can do at home, including the key vocabulary to focus on, to help develop your child's speech and oral language. The key to these activities is about engaging with the child and using simple, useful language that matches the actions of play. This puts the language into context with what they are experiencing and gives them opportunities to hear, use and practice the language in a way that makes sense to them. Often the simple phrases are repeated over and over again in the same activity which is what you want. The words that you can focus on are listed for each activity under "Language" but you can still use them in correct sentence structure whilst focusing on the key words. For example, "Ball. You have a ball" and "Give ball. Give me the ball please." For more specific information about how to develop your child's speech through play and to hear our personal journey with oral language concerns, see here. Ball Play Materials little ball bowl basket spoon Language (to match the actions) throw ball get ball give ball please (simple instructions for them to follow) ball in basket ball out of basket ball on floor ball on spoon ball fell off spoon pick up ball Pasting Materials Glue stick with lid large sheet of paper scraps for gluing (paper/felt/feathers etc) Language (to match the actions) lid off glue glue on paper stick on paper lid on glue glue on hand sticky hand/ your hand is sticky sticky paper red/blue/green etc paper (saying colour names as they are used) put lid on "Child's name" give lid please (try simple instructions for them to follow) Trucks and Ramps Materials little truck ramp (use hard cover books for ramps) small toy animal that will fit in truck/trailer (eg. dog, cow) Language Go! brooooom! Ready, set, go Go truck! truck on ramp truck go down ramp truck at top truck at bottom "dog" in truck "dog" out of truck "dog" on ramp "dog" on floor put dog in truck (simple instructions for them to follow) Making a Snack Instead of preparing a snack for your child, provide materials for them to make their own snack and then use the language that naturally goes with the processes. Materials Little containers fruit (eg. banana, strawberries) plastic knife savoury cracker spread (eg. cream cheese, peanut butter) sultanas plate Language yummy eat food hungry snack time cut up banana peanut butter on cracker put in container more? you like? 3 sultanas. 1, 2, 3. strawberry on plate strawberry off plate in mouth Pom-pom Play Materials pom-poms basket box plate spoon/tongs Language pom-poms on floor pick up pom-poms (can use simple instructions for them to follow) pom-poms in basket pom-poms in box pom-poms on plate pom-poms off plate pom-pom on spoon "red" pom-pom 3 pom-poms. 1, 2, 3 more all gone tip pom-poms Ring-Ring Materials toy phone Language hello yes thanks ok press buttons ring-ring who's there? bye Mama, Daddy, Nanna, etc. Let's build Materials variety of different blocks (shapes, sizes, colours etc) Language build up block on top put on fall down big tower tall tower very tall put block on (following simple instructions) big block little block "red" block more Animal Tracks Walking plastic animals over clay/playdough to leave footprint impressions. Focus the language on the movements and animal sounds. Materials clay/playdough plastic animals Language (match the actions being used) roll clay squishy clay kangaroo jump/ jump jump jump marks in clay footprints in clay more? snake slither/ sssssss frog jump/ jump jump/ ribbit ribbit lion roar/ roaaaaar animals walk walk on clay I'm a Chef Pretend cooking play using playdough and various kitchen implements. You can roll some sausage shapes etc. to help encourage other actions that allow you for other language use. Materials playdough plastic pot w/ lid plastic frying pan plastic knife plastic plates Language cut "playdough" (or, "sausage/carrot" etc.) roll playdough in pot out of pot in pan out of pan lid on pot lid off on plate more? no more all gone yummy what are you making? Sandpit Play Sensory play is great for young children and for developing language. Children are able to match what they are seeing/hearing/smelling/touching or tasting with the words that go with the sensory experience. This makes the experience very tangible for them. Materials sand plastic bottle with lid spoon Language lid on bottle lid off bottle sand in bottle scoop sand pour sand give spoon tip sand empty bottle sand all gone sand on spoon Handy Tips: - Generally, just asking my child if they would like to play with me is enough to entice them to participate in some one-on-one time, however if they are hesitant (code for, my toddler wants to do what he wants to, not what I want him to) I will get out the materials and start playing with them myself. The more fun I'm having on my own, the more they usually want to join in. - If your child really isn't in the mood for your planned play, I wouldn't force it. Instead, try to find a way to engage with what they are interested in playing and try and use and encourage them to practice the language that naturally comes with that activity. - Read my tips on the best way to approach these one-on-one play times with your child. - It is very important to allow your child time to respond to any questions you ask and for them to attempt to use or mimic the language. Encourage and praise their attempts at oral language. - You will most likely find, during the course of your one-on-one play, that other language (other than what's listed above) naturally occurs due to the direction that your play takes. This is of course perfectly fine. Just try and keep the language short, clear, relevant and useful during this time. Repetition is important. - There are lots of great kids books that encourage speaking and making sounds. A favourite of ours is, "Mr Brown can Moo. Can you?" by Dr Seuss. Happy playing, Debs :) Look where else we are. 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Hey busy SLP! Ever find yourself in a therapy rut or in need of some articulation activities ASAP? I’ve got you covered! This post is full of 12 quick and easy articulation activities to help you achieve as many target trials as possible, without resorting to the ever-tedious drill, drill, drill! Articulation Activitie

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It's no secret that I love toys and including play into my therapy sessions. If you haven't already downloaded my FREE Play-Based Speech Therapy Homework you can download it HERE! One toy that I use often but have never really included is a shape sorter. Sometimes this one may seem a little "babyish" but I am always surprised by my kiddos who want to play with it. This toy can be used to target many language goals and I thought I'd put together a little list of ten goals you can target with a shape sorter. I usually bring it out with my Pre-K-Kinder population or my younger students who have autism. Please know these are just general ideas, really the possibilities are endless and you may need to adjust to what your student needs. Here are some ideas of how to use a shape sorter to target language skills! First is obvious, naming or identifying colors. Now with this particular sorter, I am limited to five colors but usually, that is a good number to start with. You can give directions such as "Give me a purple block." or ask questions "What color is the triangle?" to target this goal. Next is requesting! This is a goal I work on often, many of my kiddos enjoy independent or parallel play and are used to grabbing what they want. But often I want to encourage cooperative play where they acknowledge a partner playing with them, not just next to them. I will hold the sorter bucket with the blocks and put the top in front of the student. Or I may hold all the blocks but give them the bucket with the top. Then prompt them to request what they want using as much detail as possible. My end goal would be for them to verbalize "I want a red square please!" or "Can I have the purple circle?" but we will work up to that with maybe just verbalizing or signing "more" or "please" at first. You may have to use some more structure when playing to target following directions by withholding some of the blocks. You could maybe give your student half the blocks and you keep half. Give them directions while handing one of your blocks such as "Put this block in the bucket" or "Stack this block on the star". Understanding quantities can be tricky for my younger kiddos. With the blocks, you can work on understanding "more", "some", "all" and "none". You can sort the blocks into two unequal groups and ask which group has more. You can instruct the student to put all the blocks in the bucket. You can ask the student to give you "some" blocks. You can show them an empty bucket and ask how many are inside. This one can go hand-in-hand with following directions. Prompt the student to give you a block with negation. For example "Find a block that is NOT red" or "Give me a block that is NOT round". You can use the top of sorter to match or you can put a set of blocks in a row and encourage your student to match them up with another set of blocks as shown in the picture. Positional Words, Spatial Concepts, or prepositions...whatever you call them they are all essentially the same and you can use the sorter to target them! The easiest positional words to target with the sorter are "in", "out", "on", "off", "under" and "over". You can either have the student follow your direction "Put the square on the triangle" or answer a question "Where is the orange block?" while holding it over or under another object/block. Take turns putting the blocks in, taking them out, requesting, lining them up, naming them, counting them...any of the skills you are working with! Count the blocks, it may be easiest to put them all in a straight line to help work on one-to-one correspondence when counting. For older students (end of kinder, 1st grade), you can use the blocks to count by 5's or 10's. And last but not least you can work on naming or identifying the shapes. Ask the student "What shape is this?" while pointing to the block. Request a block by naming the shape such as "Can I have a star?". If your student is good with naming/identifying the basic shapes work on the attributes instead. For example "What shape has three points?" or "Give me a shape that has four sides". That's it! One little toy and so many possibilities!

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Do you want to find motivating games for the older students on your caseload? Although I do not work with that age group now, I have worked with them in the past. It is a very difficult group to work with. Curriculum expectations are getting more intense, self awareness kicks in, and planning can be a nigh ...

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